Cosmic Ray Anisotropy Workshop 2017

Astronomy's "Next Big Thing:" What can we expect from direct observations of Einstein's elusive predictions?

10 Oct 2017, 18:00

1h

Paraninfo, Museo de las Artes (Guadalajara, Mexico)

Public Lecture Public Lecture II

Speaker

Prof. Marka Szabolcs (Columbia University, NY, USA)

Description

Advanced LIGO provided humanity with the first direct detection of gravitational waves, just in time for the 100th anniversary of Einstein's prediction. Beyond the discovery, there is a growing focus on incorporating gravitational waves as a new window on the Universe addressing questions from violent cosmic transients to cosmological enigmas. I will discuss some aspects of (i) the instrumental breakthroughs that enabled the unprecedented sensitivity reached by Advanced LIGO and (ii) the key scientific directions in which gravitational wave searches can be utilized, directly as well as in the context of multimessenger astronomy.